Jodrell Bank has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, joining a prestigious list that includes the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon.

Opened in 1945, the observatory in Cheshire is home to the Lovell Telescope, which was on stand-by duty as part of the UK’s nuclear-attack early-warning system during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

It was also used to track the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon in 1966, printing the first picture sent back to Earth from the lunar surface.

The observatory (owned by the University of Manchester) had a pioneering role in the development of radio astronomy; its first director, Sir Bernard Lovell, used equipment left over from World War II to investigate cosmic rays.

Teresa Anderson, director of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre (www.jodrellbank.net), said: “This is a great moment in the history of Jodrell Bank.

“It honours the pioneering work of Sir Bernard Lovell and the early scientists here, together with the world-leading research that continues to this day.”

Dame Nancy Rothwell, vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, said: “I’m absolutely delighted to hear that the Jodrell Bank Observatory site has been assigned World Heritage status by UNESCO. This is fitting recognition of the history of science and discovery at Jodrell Bank.

“The site is fantastic for the university because of its heritage, its teaching and its research, and also because it is a place where many members of the public come to learn about science.”